White Coat Syndrome NEWS TODAY

[ahinton]

You tell me, ferret!

I possess a medical manual at home where the doctor writer also confesses to a degree of scepticism about the current official 'zero-tolerance' view on HBP.

He states that, while it is true that the condition may increase the risk of serious illness, the increased risk is not hugely significant, and he even goes on to say that some people may even require a certain degree of HBP for their bodies to operate satisfactorily.

I suspect, as with so many things in life, the most sensible position for the rest of us to take up is probably somewhere in the middle of two extreme viewpoints!

"As with so many thinkgs in life", different blood pressure parameters according to circumstances are appropriate to different people, subject to general overall minimum and maximum acceptable levels beyond which all human life might be regarded as in potential or actual danger. Blood sugar and blood pressure levels do not in any case always go hand in hand. Any GP or medical specialist worth his or her salt will be able to determine appropriate levels for each patient according to circumstance within those extremes; indeed, all blood test reports that I've ever seen include markers showing where any individual reading is deemed to be abnormally high or low. Cholesterol levels are a particular case in point and the all too common assumption that these are determined only by dietary and other lifestyle choice factors is misleading, since hereditary and disease factors also play their part in them. As a rule, unduly elevated cholesterol readings arising from inappropriate diet reveal undesirable balances between LDL andHDL serum cholesterol (respectively what are colloquially known as "good" and "bad" cholesterol) whereas those arising from hereditary or disease considerations do not always do this; for example, abnormally high overall cholesterol readings are by no means uncommon in people suffering from certain kidney and liver diseases. The problem is that the more harmful kind of cholesterol readings (i.e. those where HDL is too high and LDL too low) are usually the easiest to rectify over time, because one can change one's dietary and other lifestyle habits far more easily than one can dismiss incurable chronic kidney and liver conditions!

[scottycelt]

Thanks for that clarification, ahinton ...

[MrGongGong]

I possess a medical manual at home

is almost as likely to get your doctors eyes rolling as saying
"I was reading on the internet and I think I have .................." (insert rare terminal condition !)

Like many my age I do take drugs for hypertension , I have a machine as well
I can get my pressure down using the well tried method of

1: Get up early
2: Take medication
3: Have 2 double espressos (its getting better !!!!)
4: Run on a treadmill for half an hour constantly (about 4km)
5: Run upstairs to the loft where the machine is
6: Sit down for 10 minutes with a bit of Feldman
7: Take blood pressure

but thats a bit of a faff really

its the underlying state thats important (as others have said) and the difference
but i'm quite glad that my upper figure is now under 150 !!

we all "know" someone who smoked all their life and never so much as coughed but that proves nothing .............

take the drugs, and the exercise and the diet

the nurse who i see at the doctors for a checkup has a great stealth method of having a chat and then taking a reading while mid sentence rather than announcing that "here it comes !!!"

[scottycelt]

My point was not that I possessed a medical manual (doesn't everyone?) but that it flatly contradicted the current official medical advice, Mr GG ....

I suspect you're right in some of the things you say, but I, and obviously others, remain sceptical about the need (or indeed advisability) to prescribe medication as the first and only line of attack for the more borderline cases.

I'm actually agreeing with those who say every person is different and what is right for one ain't necessarily so for another!

[ahinton]

is almost as likely to get your doctors eyes rolling as saying
"I was reading on the internet and I think I have .................." (insert rare terminal condition !)

Indeed!

Like many my age I do take drugs for hypertension , I have a machine as well
I can get my pressure down using the well tried method of

1: Get up early
2: Take medication
3: Have 2 double espressos (its getting better !!!!)
4: Run on a treadmill for half an hour constantly (about 4km)
5: Run upstairs to the loft where the machine is
6: Sit down for 10 minutes with a bit of Feldman
7: Take blood pressure

At the risk of seeming both pedantic and not wholly in agreement with this series of procedures, (a) isn't 4: and 5: in the wrong order? and (b) if I did 6: it would utterly ruin the possible beneficial effects of nos. 1: - 5:!

but i'm quite glad that my upper figure is now under 150 !!

But it doesn't necessarily need to be so all the time for you to have an acceptably healthy BP and, in any case, when you're doing 4: and 5: (in whichever order!) it's almost certainly to be higher than when you're not!

[Petrushka]

Several years ago a work colleague was testing everyone's BP in the office and blanched when my reading came out. A subsequent visit to my GP confirmed that mine was high and I have since been on 2mg of Perindopril tert-butylamine which has kept it down without any side effects. Fortunately, the surgery nurse is a family friend so 'white coat syndrome' isn't a problem.

I have never smoked, don't drink much and am the size and weight of a jockey so it came as a shock to learn that I have high cholesterol as well. It is, in fact, hereditary and 40mg Simvastatin keep it under control.

Incidentally, I agree with Alain Marechal upthread.

[BetweenTheStaves]

....Weight (the tendency to gain it) certainly seems to run in families.

....

I believe that this or 'it's my genes' is wishful thinking by 'fatties'. Not proven.

I solved my own mild hypertension (I was on the minimum dose of Aprovel) much to my doctor's surprise. After a full blood count, I was told that my platelets were rather large. The engineer in me thought 'well, if they are larger than they should be then it will need more pressure to force them through all the fine capillaries. So what makes them large? Three obvious contenders...genetics, excess alcohol and poor Vitamin B absorption. Genetics I can do nothing about but I did cut down on booze (not that it was excessive, you understand) and also now take Vitamin B and folic acid supplements. Result. Now been off the Aprovel for two years.

[salymap]

Glad I started this because I've learned quite a lot. Also I'm seeing a nurse to try and fix a proper check-up with cholesterol blood test. Thanks all.

[amateur51]

I believe that this or 'it's my genes' is wishful thinking by 'fatties'. Not proven.

I solved my own mild hypertension (I was on the minimum dose of Aprovel) much to my doctor's surprise. After a full blood count, I was told that my platelets were rather large. The engineer in me thought 'well, if they are larger than they should be then it will need more pressure to force them through all the fine capillaries. So what makes them large? Three obvious contenders...genetics, excess alcohol and poor Vitamin B absorption. Genetics I can do nothing about but I did cut down on booze (not that it was excessive, you understand) and also now take Vitamin B and folic acid supplements. Result. Now been off the Aprovel for two years.

And the size of your platelets, BTS?

[BetweenTheStaves]

Dinner plates

[Dave2002]

I was told that my BP indicates a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes over the next decade. Then my GP said "Of course the fact that you are male and over 60 will dominate the other factors"! Some things I can't control!

[Chris Newman]

I don't mind pills as long as the side effects are bearable. One drug I was on for my hypertension made me tired all the time and I put it down to ageing. When after two years or so I complained to my doctor about swollen feet he substituted another drug and I was amazed at how much better I felt, and how quickly.

This sounds so familiar, rauschwerk. For years I was put on Monomax, Atenolol and Ramipiril which kept me on an iffy level. Then a sudden BP rise occurred this summer and my doctor put me on Amlovasc (Amlopidine) as well. I did not want to get out of bed and my feet were huge. He changed me to Doxazosin. Bliss!! and now I have come off the Atenolol as well. A daily large beetroot means I do not need the Monomax.

[BBMmk2]

This is just a cost cutting ewxcercise by the NHS. They give a very good explanation as to why they are doing this, and one I do agree with, but this is jsut a way of cut backs. I am retired from nursing.

[salymap]

Talk about medics making high BP worse. When I was with my last Dr, 20 or so years ago,I had a dreadful headache and felt really ill.
I rang the GP in the afternoon. Her response, " Have your Medical card ready,I'll come but I'm crossing you off" When she arrived I was very upset. She took my BP,probably for the first time in my life and said " You should be dead , it's[can't remember figure}" and went out there and then to get some tablets
for me. I had never asked for a home visit before.
Now years later Iam on Candesartan, also called Amias. Does anyone takethis? I have a different Dr

[Anna]

About 10 years ago I used to see a Doctor who was the spitting image of a young Jeremy Irons, he certainly used to send some female patients all of a flutter (and he had a bit of a reputation for playing away from home) Can't remember why I went to see him now but he took my BP and announced it had gone up. Then he leant back in his chair, smiled smarmily and said "I expect it's gone up because you've seen me" I switched Docs after that.